• Why is it so easy for me to spend money on myself, and not be generous?
• Who let the dogs out?  Who? Who?  (Was that really a hit song?)
• How do I live out the generosity we spoke about in church this weekend, with people who are expecting the presents?
• Will I ever have the guts to maintain a regular exercise discipline?
• I wonder what that guy who shot up Fort Hood must be feeling as he is waking up right now?  I wonder who Jesus will use to reach Him?
• Why would someone wait hours at Sonic, just because it’s a new fast food restaurant in our area?
• How do I have a loving, exciting relationship with Jesus while maintaining the daily discipline of reading the Bible and praying?  Or more like, why the crap don’t I give Him my full attention and more time to speak?
• I wonder what other names they tried out for Twitter, before they got to Twitter?
• Why don’t I have more fun in life?  I need to not let routine ruin spontaneity.

That’s a random brain dump.  Enjoy, answer questions if you’d like, but most of all – thanks for reading.

My pastor blogged this afternoon about the transition we have made here in Hamtramck at REAL Church.  I thought I would give a few thoughts from my end.  I was installed as the campus pastor for Hamtramck, as he pursues God’s will in planting a church for midtown Detroit.  This church which he, his wife, and 8 others planted 5 years ago, they have now entrusted our team to lead this church and pastor this city.

• I’m so grateful for the team we have here in Hamtramck.  I get to minister to the people of our city, with FRIENDS!  They are not only amazing ministers of God’s Gospel, but also truly humble, encouraging, loving friends!
• I was SOOOO nervous today as I preached my first message as the campus pastor.  But when I got to the part where I shared about Jesus and what He did to save us – the Holy Spirit spoke clearly and strongly through me.  And Jesus saved people today! Nothing better.
• I’m honored to have a Pastor who believes in people.  I believe in him and follow him in the vision God has for Detroit.  I pray that the Midtown Miracle is right around the corner.
• Tomorrow, it’s back to work as a teacher.  I can’t thank God enough for a job in our city, working with the kids and parents of our city.  Working a full time job and ministering in the other times has restored my passion for Jesus and His Church in the last 2 years.
• I’m so grateful for my wife – she is so amazing and I love what God is doing in her as she leads REPO and as my wife.  She is so beautiful, daring, and loving.

To Jesus be the GLORY – He is so awesome!  His church is being built and the gates of Hell will NOT prevail.

What can you learn from former CEOs such as the leader of Home Depot, the maverick of HP, or Westin Hotels’ golden boy?  Plenty!

In Tim Irwin’s book, Derailed, he approaches leadership lessons in a refreshing way.  His book starts out with 6 profiles of leaders who were derailed in their leadership of high profile companies.  Then he goes on to point out ways that we can avoid derailment in our personal and leadership lives.

Here’s what I liked about the book:

• I liked hearing the stories of leaders who were at the top of their game and learning from the mistakes they made at the top.
• This is good for those who lead churches as well.  I feel like this book is much more honest with the flaws that caused these leaders to fall.  Too often leadership books don’t point out the honest flaws of church leaders and how they can improve them.  I found myself realizing mistakes I had made in the past and asking Jesus to forgive me and help me to be a leader more like Him.
• His habits of the heart to stay on track are definitely applicable to my life.
• This is the first NelsonFree book that I have seen.  When you buy the book, you automatically get the PDF version for your computer, and the audio version.  All 3 formats for the price of one!  So cool.

I recommend this book to those looking for leadership fine tuning, and keeping their heart and character wholly true.

Daniel 1 – What should you fast?

Jesus says in Matthew 6:16, “WHEN you fast…”.   He is saying that we should fast – it’s not an option with Him.  However, the times you fast, what you fast, and what you fast for are left up to you.  Here are a couple of fasts in the Bible…

Daniel 1:16 – Daniel and his friends fast rich food and wine in favor of whole grains, fruits and vegetables.
Luke 4:2 – Jesus fasts from food completely for 40 days (this is a fast that you should consult a doctor before attempting – even if God told you to do it).
Jonah 3:5,10 – Nineveh fasts as a reaction to their repentance for their sin.
Jeremiah 36:6 – There are fast days – where you fast for a day.

At our church, we do what we call Week of War the first week of each month.  We pray at our church from 6-7 PM Monday through Saturday.  Then we encourage our people to fast something and give God that time.

When you fast, I suggest choosing something that takes up time in your day (not work or school – though we’d like that) – so you can re-use that time with God.  If you’re on the Internet a lot – fast the Internet – and give that time to God.  If you watch TV a lot – fast TV – and give that time to God in the evenings.  Even the time you spend cooking and eating – could be reused to spend time with God.

There are many options and possibilities – it pretty much depends on what God is asking YOU to do (or your pastor).  But, listen, because sometimes it’s not what you would expect.  And other times, he lets you choose what to fast.

We’ll talk tomorrow about why fasting is important.

Tony Morgan – Killing Cockroaches

5 Reasons You’ll be Stuck Killing Cockroaches:

1.  You’ll Settle for Something that is not God’s Plan (Genesis 11:31-32)
•    Where is God calling me and am I settling for Haran instead of Canaan, like Terah did?  The difference between Terah & Abram (Genesis 11:32 & Genesis 12:1)
•    This is our ability to hear from God and do what He tells us to do.
•    Sometimes we see that the pace of ministry goes faster than our relationship with Jesus.  We need to slow down at those times.
•    There is value in clear vision from Jesus:
o    Sets values and creates unity.
o    Facilitates decision making for the future.
o    Framework for us.
o    Defines what the ultimate goal is.

2.  The Ministry will Outgrow You (Acts 6:7)
•    Doing the work of God, but not doing the work God has called us to do.
•    We need to pass on leadership to others.
•    We’re so concerned about doing the right thing that we don’t let them do the wrong thing.
•    Exodus 18:17 – raise up other leaders.

3.  You’ll Stay too focused on execution rather than outcomes
•    Empowerment is telling them the destination and letting them choose the route.  Hold accountable to outcomes, encourage when good, correct when bad.  Great leaders will leave your ministry if you focus more on execution than you do outcomes!

4.  You’ll Avoid giving Volunteers opportunity to both serve and lead.  (Eph. 4:12-16)
•    God’s people don’t do the leaders’ work, but God’s work.

5.  You’ll Embrace Fear or Pride rather than Humility (1 Peter 5:5-8; John 3:30)
•    I can take the first step out of the boat, and if it doesn’t go my way then anxiety and fear try to paralyze me.
•    Give up control to admit Jesus is in control.
•    I experience fear, because I feel like I’m still in control.

The Daniel fast explained.

Daniel 1:12 “Please test us for ten days on a diet of vegetables and water,” Daniel said. (see also v.13-16)

Daniel and his friends were entered into a training program when they were taken as captives into Babylon – to learn the habits and customs of this new land.  However, some of the food that the Babylonians ate were not in agreement with the Mosaic Law and maybe the meat had been sacrificed to false gods and idols.

So Daniel decided that he and his 3 friends would eat a diet of things that had come from “sown seed” – grains, vegetables, fruits, etc.  This was to obey the dietary laws of their commitment to God.  The result was that they were healthier than the other people in Babylon’s program.

Now I believe that it was a supernatural health that God gave these men to show His power through them, even though it is physically healthy.  But I also believe that it can be a healthy fast that you can do – especially for longer periods of time.

You can actually buy a Daniel fast cookbook here – http://daniel-fast.com/store.html

Or you can see some foods/meals recommended here – http://danielfast.wordpress.com/daniel-fast-food-list/

MIKE HYATT – WHAT AMERICAN CHRISTIANS CAN LEARN FROM THE POOR

Every day, 26,500 children die of preventable diseases and hunger.  10 million per year.

“In the news business, one dead firefighter in Brooklyn equals 5 English bobbies dying, 50 Arabs dying, or 500 Africans dying.”  ~ News anchor

World vision has 1200 indigenous workers all over the world – they are their main team of people.

“The rich exist for the sake of the poor.  The poor exist for the salvation of the rich.”  ~ St. John Chrysotom (c.347-407)  Also James 2:5

What can we learn from the poor?
•    Gratitude – we need to learn it again.  Don’t have a sense of entitlement, even spiritual entitlement.
•    Contentment – 1 Timothy 6:8; Could I say there’s nothing I need?
•    Community – Taking care of the people around us.  There’s a lot of problems in our communities that community could solve.  1 John 3:17

What can we do about the poor?

“It’s not our fault people are poor, but it is our responsibility to do something about it.”  ~ Richard Stearns, The Hole in Our Gospel

•    Educate yourself.
•    Visit the poor.
•    Sponsor a family or child.
•    Re-purpose the money you have in your budget.

If you make $25,000 a year you are wealthier than 90% of the world.
If you make $50,000 a year you are wealthier than 99% of the world.

“Don’t fail to do something just because you can’t do everything.” Bob Pierce

WORKSHOPS DAY 2

SKYE JETHANI

2 Fatal Flaws of Instructional Preaching:

•    It doesn’t work. Small relational groups work for life change.
•    It doesn’t challenge people’s perceptions of reality.

Consumer Worldview:
•    The consumer is the center of the universe.
•    The essence of life is unmet desires, we exist for meeting those desires.
•    Any problem I have – there is a pill, program, or person to solve my problem.
•    It reduces Jesus to a commodity.

We’ve made Jesus a means to an end, not an end in itself.  He’s Alpha and Omega.
It would benefit us to make Christianity the most irrelevant view around.

People walking in darkness don’t need a cane, they need a great light!

Means without vision = unused exercise equipment around the U.S.
•    We don’t lack means, people just don’t intend to follow Christ.

Preaching as illumination…
•    There’s a difference between preaching (Gk. Caruso = announce) and teaching (Gk. Didasko = instruct).
•    It alters our vision to see beyond the darkness.
•    Teaching is competence with a set of knowledge.
•    Preaching is announcing a new reality.

Nothing makes sense if your imagination is locked in this world.

In Matthew 11 – John the Baptist is in prison – “Go tell him what you have seen”.
•    Not just coping with the dungeon, but see a world beyond the dungeon.

Don’t JUST instruct, INSPIRE!

THOMAS FLUHARTY

He is an awesome artist that works for TIME magazine and other magazines illustrating charicatures and other political and world situations.  He has an amazing testimony and he told it during this time.   Then he said one thing at the end that I thought was really good.

“The Cross tells a story that Creation never could.”  – about the love, grace, mercy, forgiveness that Jesus showed us on the Cross.

Over the next few weeks – I’m going to be blogging about the book of Daniel and some thoughts on it all…

Daniel 1

It’s not always easy to fast in our overindulging culture.

•    Babylon is inviting you to a feast – as commercials bombard you with images of food you just HAVE to try.
•    Babylon is inviting you to be entertained – with available at all times DVR’s and Hulu, to the palaces built for movies that we pay to worship in, the accessible sexual pits on the Internet, or even the strip clubs that litter the streets here in Detroit.
•    Babylon is inviting you to sleep – to sleep off the regret, to sleep off the conviction, to sleep off the anger, to sleep off the love for others.

But Daniel chose to fast in the overindulging culture to which he was carried as a slave.  The results were that he was healthier than all the other exiles, and God enabled him to help transform a culture and a time.  He led others to the One and Only True God.

We’ll talk more tomorrow about the Daniel fast.

Stacy Spencer

• Keep a sermon in your pocket and a sermon in your heart.

Story as Movie – 5 Ways
1) Why should they listen?  (Christ for Clunkers – sermon series)
2) Introduce the text to the dilemma.  Blow the dust off the text.
3) Put them in a movie.  Parables were a portal into the story.
4) Got to have a twist.  Everything means something in the text.
5) Have redemption in your story.  I can still live life when I leave.

“Hope is a dangerous thing” – Shawshank Redemption
Give people a spoonful of hope to get out each week.

But one day the movies will be over and the angels will look over the masses of people who have come to God and say, “These are they who have a story to tell.”
______________________
Mike Foster

• A revolution gains momentum by telling a better story.
• We censor our stories when we only talk about successes.
• “We celebrate successes, but identify with brokenness.”
• I don’t want to follow anyone who doesn’t have a limp.
• Leadership is lonely because people don’t get you when you project success all the time.
• The enemy wants us to be afraid of our pain & failure.

_______________________
We weren’t there for most of the Donald Miller talk.  Sorry.